Life Sciences Commons^™

Do Fishery Meeting Attendees Represent The Fishing Industries?, Dominique Seibert

LSU Master's Theses

Public meetings are a highly utilized tool for disseminating important or useful information. Many agencies rely on them to reach various stakeholders and community representation at these meetings is important. A substantial amount of research has been conducted on various aspects of public meetings including different techniques, factors impacting attendance, and representativeness, that is attendees’ opinions representing the opinions at-large. A noticeable gap in the research includes information on public fishery meetings, commercial fishing industries, and their members’ participation. With the U.S. commercial fishing industries supporting more than a million jobs and providing more than a 200-billion-dollar economic impact annually, …

Evaluating Sensory Quality, Willingness To Try, Risk And Product Appropriateness Of Seafood Byproducts, Silvia Jessenia Murillo Miguez

LSU Master's Theses

Valorization of food wastes/byproducts has become a major subject of research to increase sustainability of the global food supply chain. Seafood industries generate a substantial quantity of byproducts. An online survey was used to evaluate Willingness-to-try (WTT), the effect of a Consumer Safety Statement (CSS) on WTT, perceived risks and product appropriateness associated with seafood byproducts in food as influenced by gender and race. Based on the finding from this survey, a clean label catfish bone powder (CBP) was developed and used for breaded catfish sticks which were evaluated for sensory liking, emotional profile, and purchase intent. Previous consumers of …

Understanding Motivations Among Sustained Cooperative Extension Partners For Obesity Prevention In Rural Louisiana, Catherine R. Losavio

LSU Master's Theses

Louisiana consistently has one of the highest rates of obesity in the nation with higher concentrations of obesity in many rural parishes (i.e., counties). Due to over a century of visibility and engagement in rural communities, Cooperative Extension (Extension) is uniquely poised to reach remote rural communities disproportionately impacted by obesity. As Extension increases its use of community coalitions and implements its new National Framework for Health Equity and Well-Being, understanding motivations and communication preferences among long-term rural coalition partners for obesity prevention and health promotion has become essential for duplicating successful local-level policy, system, and environmental (PSE) changes. This …

Visuomotor Rotation Adaptation And Workspace Manipulation: A Behavioral And Cognitive Emphasis, Reuben N. Addison

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

This is a three-study dissertation in which we aimed to broaden our knowledge of the mechanisms contributing to a 45° clockwise visuomotor adaptation by including variations in workspace. We provide behavioral and in one study physiological outcomes as evidence to support our conclusions. In the first experiment, we observed the adaptation of movement parameters such as pathlength, movement time, resultant velocity, and normalized jerk across groups trained with rotated visual feedback with both the left and right hands. Workspace location and hand differentially affected movement trajectory length. The group that practiced the task with their nondominant, left hand showed larger …

Mindfulness And Physical Activity As Moderators Of Behavioral Inhibition Sensitivity And Psychological Distress, Edward Silber

LSU Master's Theses

Framed in Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory, the current study examined the moderating effects of mindfulness and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity (MVPA) on the relationship between behavioral inhibition system (BIS) sensitivity and psychological distress. Participants (N=183) were college students at a large public university in the Southeastern United States. Data were collected using an online survey with self-report questionnaires that demonstrated acceptable reliability. Data analysis utilized multiple linear regression models to test study hypotheses. Findings revealed a significant positive relationship between BIS sensitivity and psychological distress, with mindfulness and MVPA significantly moderating this association. Specifically, increased reports of mindfulness and MVPA …

The Predictive Influence Of Challenging Behavior On Parent Stress In Young Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder, Paige Weir

LSU Master's Theses

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by deficits in social communication, restricted interest, and repetitive patterns of behavior. Individuals with ASD also exhibit challenging behaviors that affect parent and caregiver stress directly. However, researchers have not yet examined the predictive influence of specific challenging behaviors on parent stress, particularly in young children (i.e., infants and toddlers) with ASD. Therefore, the current study expands existing literature by a) investigating the influence that challenging behaviors of young children with ASD have on parent stress and b) examining the unique contribution that each behavior (i.e., aggressive/disruptive behavior, stereotypy, and self-injurious …

Degumming Of Hemp Fibers Using Combined Microwave Energy And Deep Eutectic Solvent, Bulbul Ahmed

LSU Master's Theses

Hemp is considered as one of the sustainable agricultural fiber materials. Degumming or surface modification of hemp bast is needed to produce single fibers for ensuing textile and industrial applications. The traditional degumming process necessitates a high amount of alkali, which causes detrimental environmental pollution. This study offers a new method to degum hemp fibers with reduced use of harmful alkali and precious water resources. In this work, hemp bast fibers were degummed by using combined microwave energy and deep eutectic solvent (DES). The properties of hemp fibers manufactured by this method were investigated and compared with the traditional alkali …

Environmental Perception In Colombia's Páramo Protected Areas, Juliana Delgado

LSU Master's Theses

This thesis analyzes the gap between farmers' environmental perceptions in Téquita, a small village in Colombia, and the definition of protected areas has led to a conflict for the use of natural resources. I examine if the protected area's policies have dealt with the social and ecological issues in the páramos and recognized the social construction of the landscape, farmers' identities, and their interpretations about work and land. The case study focuses on Güina High Mountain in the Guantiva-La Rusia páramo complex, which recently the Colombian government declared as a protected area. In light of anthropologist Tim Ingold's meaning of …

Mental Imagery In The Regulation Of Differential Fear Conditioning: A Multimodal Investigation Involving Self-Report, Psychophysiology, And Brain Imaging, Tyler Daniel Robinson

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Mental imagery is a common component in a range of emotion regulation techniques. However, the effectiveness and neural mechanisms of regulation via mental imagery are underexplored due to a lack of studies targeting mental imagery specifically. This discrepancy results in uncertainty regarding the mechanism of regulation in existing paradigms. Biased competition for attentional resources presents a plausible model by which a mental imagery-based distracter can downregulate response to an emotional stimulus. If visualizing an imagined distracter effectively regulates emotional response, the inclusion of mental imagery components in other techniques represents a potential confound. To address this discrepancy, this dissertation investigates …

The One – Way (Agri)Cultural Mirror: A Case Study Of How Young Agriculturalists Understand And Experience Culture, Janiece M. Pigg

LSU Master's Theses

As the global economy continues to transform how society operates, cultural competence has become a buzzword in education, professional development, research, government, and healthcare (Gay, 1994; Gallus et al., 2014). Cross et al. (1989) developed the most accepted definition of cultural competence: “a set of congruent behaviors, attitudes, and policies that come together in a system, agency, or among professionals and enable that system, agency, or those professionals to work effectively in cross-cultural situations” (p. 13).

Despite this, little to no research has been devoted to understanding cultural competence in agriculture. Thus, a need emerged to describe the cultural competence …

Sexually Dimorphic Oxytocin Receptor-Expressing Neurons In The Anteroventral Periventricular Nucleus Regulates Maternal Behavior, Kaustubh Sharma

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The neurohypophysial hormone oxytocin is involved in the regulation of social behaviors, including social recognition, pair bonding, and sex-specific parental behaviors in a variety of species. Oxytocin triggers these social behaviors by binding to oxytocin receptors (OXTR) in various parts of the brain. Oxytocin-induced sex-typical behavior, therefore, suggests a sexual dimorphic distribution of OXTR in the brain. In recent years, the oxytocin system in the brain received tremendous attention as a potential pharmacological target for treatment of many psychiatric disorders, such as anxiety, autism spectrum disorders, and even sex-specific psychiatric disorder like postpartum depression (PPD). An important problem and a …

Louisiana Southern Flounder: Commercial And Recreational Trends, David Russell Smith

LSU Master's Theses

Southern Flounder (Paralichthys lethostigma) is a coastal flatfish species that supports recreational and commercial fisheries throughout Louisiana. The recreational and commercial sectors of the Southern Flounder fishery in Louisiana both lack current information that profiles the fishery’s ability to meet stakeholder interest. This project characterized the Louisiana Southern Flounder fishery through an evaluation of fishery-dependent data and a survey of coastal Louisiana anglers.

Fishery-dependent data was gathered to characterize the recreational and commercial Southern Flounder fisheries in Louisiana. This study had three objectives for this evaluation: 1) modeling landings data to evaluate any trends, 2) examine the seasonality of landings, …

Reconsidering The Obstetrical Dilemma: Correlations Between Head And Pelvic Size, Kelsey Catrice Fox

LSU Master's Theses

The Obstetrical Dilemma (OD) theory has become canon in biological anthropology. The OD posits that i] dystocia results from bipedal mothers and encephalized infants, ii] contrasting selection for bipedality and obstetrics hinders locomotive efficiency, and iii] the contradicting requirement of the fetus being small enough to pass through the birth canal yet being cognitively advanced enough to cling to its mother after birth. Females, theoretically, exhibit deficient gait efficiency for the sake of successful childbirth. An obstetric advantage theory has been posited where taller individuals with a larger head size have larger pelves. If the distance between the acetabulae increases …

Exploring Effects Of Background Music In A Serious Game On Attention By Means Of Eeg Signals In Children, Fettah Kiran

LSU Master's Theses

Music and Serious Games are separately useful alternative therapy methods for helping people with a cognitive disorder, including Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). The goal of this thesis is to explore the effect of background music on children with and without ADHD. In this study, a simple Tetris game is designed with Beethoven, Mozart music, and no-music. There are different brainwave techniques for recording; among others, the electroencephalography (EEG) allows for the most efficient use of BCI. We recorded the EEG brain signals of the regular and ADHD subjects who played the Tetris we designed according to our protocol that …

An Investigation Of Athletic Buoyancy In Adult Recreational And Sport Club Athletes, Jackie Rae Victoriano Calhoun

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Athletic buoyancy is the ability of an athlete to effectively handle the daily setbacks and challenges they face during training and competition. Although buoyancy has received ample research in the academic domain, a dearth of information exists regarding buoyancy in the athletic domain. Therefore, the overall purpose of this dissertation was to investigate athletic buoyancy’s independent contribution to sport psychology while also exploring antecedents and outcomes in adult athletes.

Study 1 compared athletic buoyancy to other cognate constructs, or similar constructs, to determine their conceptual boundaries. A one-time, online questionnaire was distributed to 294 recreational athletes (M age = …

Development Of High-Fiber Belgian Waffles And Evaluation Of Product Acceptance, Product-Elicited Emotion, And Purchase Intent By Millennial Consumers, 2253299685 Velasquez

LSU Master's Theses

Dietary fiber may help reduce LDL cholesterol levels and prevent cardiovascular diseases. The US-FDA recommends 14g of fiber/1000kcal consumed, but Americans consume/day. A product containing ≥5 grams of fiber/serving can be claimed as a high-fiber product. Adding dietary fiber to food affects their physicochemical properties and sensory quality, possibly leading to less product acceptability. This study was performed to assess selected physicochemical properties and consumer perception of “high-fiber” Belgian waffles. Waffles were formulated to have fiber contents of

Examining The Evolution Of Urban Multipurpose Facilities: Applying The Ideal-Type To The Facilities Of The National Hockey League And National Basketball Association, Benjamin Downs

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The standardized versions of ice hockey and basketball emerged during the last quarter of the 19^thcentury. In short order both ice hockey and basketball evolved from amateur, recreational activities to professional sport and entertainment businesses. This study analyzes, contextualizes, and discusses the layout of the urban multipurpose facilities that emerged to house both professional hockey and professional basketball, with particular attention paid to the facilities of the National Hockey League and National Basketball Association. The study uses the lens of modernization and the ideal-type heuristic device to extend Bale’s and Seifried’s facility evolution models. In addition to providing …

The Use Of Geospatial Modeling And Novel Diagnostics To Detect And Map Risk Factors Of Soil-Transmitted Helminths In Feira De Santana, Brazil, Ryan Harry Avery

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Soil-transmitted helminth (STH) infections impact billions of people worldwide. The traditional STH control approach is a morbidity control strategy implementing mass drug administration (MDA) programs targeting school-aged children (SAC). In Brazil, this control strategy has decreased STH prevalence to less than 20% in most of the country and providing an opportunity to transition from the morbidity control program and towards a surveillance and response system geared towards STH elimination. Surveillance and response systems geared towards elimination require the implementation higher accuracy diagnostics to detect infection in low-transmission communities, surveillance of entire households, high-resolution modeling at the household-habitat scale, and targeted …

The Generalization Of Fear Condition Between Viewed And Imagined Percepts, Lauryn Michelle Burleigh

LSU Master's Theses

Mental images can provoke intense emotional states (Holmes & Matthews, 2010). Imagery and perception have common neural and physiological mechanisms, including activation of the early visual areas (Albers et al., 2013). We tested the prediction that individuals can acquire fear to imagined percepts and if this fear transfers to viewing percepts, using fMRI and self-reported measures to determine participants’ fear. The participants completed a task in which they viewed and imagined two stimuli, and were fear conditioned when imagining the CS+. Participants are only told that mild electrical stimulation will be paired with one of the stimuli, but not which …

A Study Of The Urban Red Fox (Vulpes Vulpes) Population In Baton Rouge, Louisiana Using Social Media, Ahsennur Soysal

LSU Master's Theses

Foxes are timid yet resourceful animals that are integrated into many urban environments. Because they are elusive, collecting information about the number of urban foxes, their diet and spatial distribution, their interactions with the ecological community in their urban habitat, as well as residents’ response to them, is difficult. Involving stakeholders to participate in the data collection on wildlife via citizen science on social media is one way to overcome this complication, while simultaneously engaging residents in the ecology happening around them. Therefore, we used social media as the platform to engage the public to document and map the foxes …

Cognitive Phenotypes And The Evolution Of Animal Decisions, Tamra C. Mendelson, Courtney L. Fitzpatrick, Mark E. Hauber, Charles H. Pence, Rafael L. Rodríguez, Rebecca J. Safran, Caitlin A. Stern, Jeffrey R. Stevens

Faculty Publications

Despite the clear fitness consequences of animal decisions, the science of animal decision making in evolutionary biology is underdeveloped compared with decision science in human psychology. Specifically, the field lacks a conceptual framework that defines and describes the relevant components of a decision, leading to imprecise language and concepts. The ‘judgment and decision-making’ (JDM) framework in human psychology is a powerful tool for framing and understanding human decisions, and we apply it here to components of animal decisions, which we refer to as ‘cognitive phenotypes’. We distinguish multiple cognitive phenotypes in the context of a JDM framework and highlight empirical …

Analyzing Market Incentives For Wetland Restoration In Louisiana: Wetland Mitigation Banking, Blue Carbon Sequestration, And Wetland Entrepreneurship, Eric Newberry

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

“In The System:” A Qualitative Study Of African-American Women’S Foster Care Stories, Meghan Spell

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

Video Game Addiction: Truth Or Fiction, Lyles Thibodeaux-Harmony

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.

A Socio-Economic Study Of Nature Tourist Behavior In Louisiana, Rudolf Walter Jacobs Ast

Honors Theses

No abstract provided.